Each site has a set of plots (either “tower” or “distributed”)
Each tree is mapped (species)
Each year, each tree is measured: status (live or dead) and diameter
NEON Woody Carbon
Diameter can be converted to biomass using “allometric” relationships
Biomass can be converted to carbon (carbon = biomass x 0.5)
Allometric relationships are from Jenkin et al. (2004)
NEON Woody Carbon
Carbon for individual trees is summed within a plot to determine the plot carbon each year
The summed carbon is divided by the area (m^2) of the plot to standardize across plots of different size
All plots within a site averaged to get a site-level carbon for each year.
Structure of data
Data is spread across multiple tables
The data are stored in a relational database.
New skills
Reading in database in R (collect)
Joining tables to create data frames for analysis (left_join)
Filtering on strings (str_detect)
Science Question
How much carbon is stored in a forest ecosystem and how does it differ across the U.S.?
I am a “client” interested in the carbon storage in vegetation of different ecosystems across the continental U.S. to guide my investment in the California Carbon Market.
Specifically, I want carbon stocks estimates from four sites in NEON